Dad Pinned Under Snowmobile with Broken Leg in Middle of Wilderness. No Food. No Water. So 9-Year-Old Son Played Only Card They Had Left.

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Bode Bierdneau and his father JT were snowmobiling near South Lake Tahoe’s backcountry last Sunday when the 9-year-old’s moment of truth hit hard.

An accident left his dad pinned under his snowmobile with a broken leg.

Image source: KGO-TV

“I jumped off my snowmobile and tried to dig him out,” the younger Bierdneau told KGO-TV in San Francisco. “I dug him out as fast as I could but my fingers got numb.”

Without a cellphone signal or GPS or food or water, the only choice was for this 4th-grader to set off alone and get help before things got worse for his father.

“I was pretty nervous and it was just a lot of pressure on me I didn’t know where to go and it was really hard,” Bode told the station.

Eventually Bierdneau flagged down a tour group that radioed for help. Rescue workers arrived and a helicopter airlifted his dad to a hospital where doctors performed emergency surgery on his broken leg.

Image source: KGO-TV

Bode’s dad in the hospital. (Image source: KGO-TV)

“I was just really hoping he would be OK,” Bode told KGO.

Back home in Marin County, Calif., Bierdneau’s mom Tisha Shaw cycles through all the unthinkable scenarios but always comes back in amazement over how her son responded to such a dire situation.

Image source: KGO-TV

“I was so upset, but then I thought he is such a calm kid, he is so grounded, he is such a hero,” Shaw told KGO. “He saved his dad’s life — does he know he saved his dad’s life?”